Banish the Nightmares
by Page-Mistress
Summary: Patricia Tannis is nowhere near as okay with what she's gone through as she lets on. And she's had it affect her sleep before. When Zed finds out after they get together, he goes to make sure she can get some decent sleep. He can't go fix it, but he can be there for the woman he loves. Mostly Z/P, minor K/M, and Axton's in it a little but I can't character tag him. Happy V-Day!


For LadyTalon, not only a fellow shipper of Zed/Patricia, but the one who got me into the Overwatch fandom which led me to Symmrat, which led to me comparing them to Borderlands characters, which ended up helping me figure out a plot point for this that, until 6/14/2016, I could never think of a good way to write out. Seriously, I didn't really like my other two, original ideas for how to do it. Then I finally thought of something that I liked. Thanks, LT. Probably wouldn't have thought of this without you.

Happy Valentine's Day, 2017!

* * *

Banish the Nightmares

* * *

Zed likes to think he and Krieg are friends.

Things were tense at first, on his part because the man was a Psycho, and on Krieg's part… well, he wasn't overly fond of doctors, and less fond of people who liked doing experiments.

With what he'd eventually learned the man went through, Zed couldn't blame him. Patricia, much as he loved her (and wasn't it nice that he didn't need to keep that a secret anymore?), probably didn't help on that part.

Still, he's managed to bond with him, same as everyone, and he can understand him better than most. Likely because of all the time he's spent around Psychos before this. Learning what they probably meant helped in avoiding whatever they were up to.

Still, he's starting to rethink the friend thing, because it's some ungodly hour at night, and he seems to be in one piece, and Zed's wondering how much he needs to listen to the Hippocratic Oath if he's not licensed anymore, and does hurting someone who isn't injured violate it anyways?

"Rude lady lied before," Krieg said in a mixture of a low growl and a whisper. "Mr. Sandman won't bring dreams because old hurts and dead people won't let him. Go banish the nightmares."

The fact it was one of the most coherent things Krieg'd ever said to him was soon lost as the words clicked in his head, waking him up completely.

Zed had been persuaded to leave Sanctuary for a few days to check on Karima and her people to see how they were doing health wise. He'd come back and stopped by to see how his girlfriend was doing. He noticed she'd looked tired. She told him she'd just been staying up late working on something and so not enough hours of sleep, and of course he'd believed it because it was something she'd done more than once before, so why wouldn't he believe his official girlfriend of two weeks when she said so this time?

"Thanks," He said to Krieg as he went back in to grab some things.

Krieg waited until the doctor opened the door once more, now on his way to his girlfriend's place, before leaving himself, returning to the shared building of his fellow Vault Hunters.

"Hey Krieg," Axton muttered sleepily, opening his door at the sound of the Psycho walking past. "You tell Zed about Tannis?"

Krieg nodded, "The hero's gone to the side of his princess."

"Good. She'd probably take him confronting her better than any of us. Night." With a wave, he closed his door.

Krieg opened the door to his own room, stripping down to his boxers before climbing into bed with Maya, who'd apparently decided to read while she waited.

"Everything went well?" He nodded. "Good," Maya said, placing her book on the sidetable and switching off the light. "I'm sure Tannis will thank you for this tomorrow." She kissed his cheek before settling against him.

* * *

Early in their "friends with benefits" relationship, Patricia had given him a key to her home, trusting that he wouldn't misuse it, and to avoid having anyone hear him knocking. He was fairly certain that using it to get inside now, when he wanted to help… well, okay, it was probably toeing the line towards misuse. They could talk about that later, though.

She didn't even notice when he came in, or when he closed the door. She's too busy pacing while reading notes and muttering to herself. Given the lack of ECHO Recorder, it was a safe bet it was to distract herself rather than anything actually important.

After taking a moment to marvel at the fact that she isn't bumping into anything, and then another to see if she realized he was there, Zed decided to announce his presence. "Ahem."

He almost felt bad for the startled sound she made as she dropped her notes and but jumped a foot in the air. It might have been funny under different circumstances, too. Except for the look on her face when she turned around and saw him; annoyance that turned into "oh, crap, I am not prepared for this encounter".

"Ya know, part of the whole "being a couple" thing is about being honest with each other," Zed said, leaning against the door. "It's been brought to my attention that you were lying earlier when you said you were too busy working on something to get enough sleep."

Patricia blinked, "How- who-?"

"Krieg, 'bout five minutes ago." He cocked his head to the side, concern on his face. "Now, wanna try telling me why you really ain't sleeping?"

For a while, she didn't move, partially due to processing the fact _Krieg_ of all people had told him.

Eventually, however, she wrapped her hands over her arms, looking at the ground. "They won't stop," She whispered, and the statement alone is enough to make him stand up straight. "I lay down and try to fall asleep, and it all just keeps coming back. I remember what happened after Dahl left, I remember what Hyperion did, and I can't stop." She bit her lip, "I try to think of better things, but then I just remember that I thought things were going well before they got bad, and sometimes when I do sleep, I just relive them and I get scared that I won't wake up and I feel so alone." Her voice was shaking at the end, both from the pain of the topic, and from making herself tell him. It was probably a testament to how tired she was that she just told him.

Before Zed could say anything to comfort her, she'd moved from her spot, pressing her forehead into his chest, gripping the front of his shirt in her hands. "I'm scared things are going to go wrong now that we're together. That something will take you away, or take me, and will you please stay with me tonight?"

It took Zed a second to process her question at the end, but once he did, he wrapped his arms around her and placed a kiss atop her head. "Wasn't exactly plannin' on going back to my place, darlin'."

* * *

It's not the first time Zed'd been in her bedroom. He'd even technically spent the night a few times, but generally speaking, that was far less likely to happen here than when they shacked up at his place. Knowing what he did now, she'd probably found it easier to try to distance herself when she was the one leaving the next day. But regardless, this was the first time he'd been in since they'd become a couple, and, it occurred to him, it was going to be the first time they'd be doing this without sex being involved prior to sleeping.

It made being here far more intimate. And slightly nerve wracking, because he did _not_ want her to think he was in any way expecting anymore. She's got an unfortunate habit of overthinking things. So when she decided to get changed in the bathroom, he didn't say anything (even if he had already seen her in various states of undress). After a moment, he decided to leave the lightweight t-shirt he'd grabbed on.

And he tries very hard not to stare when she comes out, because yeah, she's wearing a tank top and pajama pants that only go to her knees, but dammit he's not gonna make his girlfriend uncomfortable. Especially not now.

"I'm sorry for not being truthful, before," She said while she set aside the clothes she'd taken off, placing the goggles on the table. "Given that it did not happen very much, if at all, the times I spent the night with you after sex, I should have thought about simply asking you to stay the night. The thought did occur to me, in fact, but I thought it was simply the exhaustion of sexual activity wearing me out too much for my psyche to torment me."

Zed chuckled a little, "I'm gonna choose to take that assumption as a compliment."

"It was perhaps among the reasons I was able to cope better at night for a while," she admitted as she slid into bed. "As I said, though, it seems like things are going too well, sometimes, and my anxiety flares up, and I… forgot I have people I can talk to. So I just… kept it all in, hoped it would just go away. And when you came back… I thought that after running off only a little while ago, I might be bothering you if I did."

He pressed a quick kiss to Patricia's lips. "Well, lucky for you, you got people more than happy to help when you can't. Now, let's get to sleep." He laid down, "We can talk more about this at a more reasonable hour."

Patricia smiled, laying down close to him. "Good night, Zed."

* * *

At some point during the night, she woke him up, whimpering in her sleep. Some part of him noticed that they moved away from each other, and that her back is to him, and decided that was part of the problem. Zed rolled onto his side, and, after thinking about it for a moment, gently placed his left arm over her, laying his hand on top of hers.

She tensed, and for a moment he thought he did something wrong. "Just me, Tricia. Not gonna let anything happen to you, sweetheart," He murmured into her ear. He's not even sure if she woke up, because she didn't say anything, but she relaxed and moved so that her back was against his chest. He recalled her doing that before, when it was just about sex, and she'd move closer to him in her sleep like she was seeking his warmth.

…come to think of it, maybe it should have occurred to him that she reciprocated his affections sooner than two weeks ago.

After a moment of just observing her, Zed carefully moved his fingers so that he held her hand, half because he wanted to, and half because he remembered hearing somewhere that this could comfort people in their sleep.

"Yer not alone, Patricia. And anyone telling you otherwise in there can fuck off," he murmured once more, laying a kiss to the back of her head.

It takes a while, but eventually he fell back to sleep himself, listening to her calmed breathing.

* * *

It was the first time in days that Patricia slept through the night, and didn't wake up with a sense of fear. She could vaguely recall something bad in her sleep, but then a reassuring presence made it go away.

She felt the pressure around her hand, and looked down to see that at some point Zed had draped an arm around her, and held her hand.

"That will not be comfortable when he wakes up," she muttered to herself.

"S'not," her boyfriend replied, apparently already awake. "It'll work itself out during the day, though."

Without turning to face him, she raised a brow. "How long have you been awake?"

She felt him shrug behind her. "A little while, I guess. Didn't want to wake you, and it's kinda comfortable. Sleep well?"

She smiled, "Better than I have since you left, thank you." after a moment, she asked, "Am I to assume I may call you and ask you over if I have such bad dreams again?"

"Course, darlin'. I get the same curtesy?"

Patricia frowned, "You also have such dreams?"

"Well, my bad dreams ain't as bad as yers apparently are. But they could get that bad if you say yes."

After a moment, Patricia smiled. "You're smiling, aren't you? you are simply indicating that you find sharing a bed for simply for sleeping purposes rather enjoyable?"

Zed chuckled and pressed a kiss to her head. "Yeah. And before you ask, not just for the potential morning sex, which I am in no way expecting right now," he added quickly.

She had been wondering about that, and was grateful for the clarification. Patricia brought their now clasped hands to her face, pressing a kiss to his fingers, "I would like to stay like this for a while. I think you're right, Zed, this does feel very pleasant."

* * *

The End

* * *

Notes:

Yeah, so, I figure that Tannis is nowhere near as unaffected by things like her torture as she likes to seem. Krieg, having directly suffered at the hands of Hyperion himself, gets that. When he's bothered, he goes to Maya often, so he figures she probably needs Zed. Since he can't really tell her that, and she might not listen even if she did understand what he was saying, he gets Zed to go to her.

Krieg tried very hard to be clear to Zed, and I tried very hard to still make his line Krieg-like. I love the good Psycho, and he and Maya are an OTP of mine, but I don't really do fics of them because he's hard to write, dialogue-wise. I also think Krieg's rather… wary of doctors after his experiences. Tannis wanting to run tests on him doesn't really help. Zed may have a thing for making unholy abominations, but once he figures out Zed's a good guy overall, he warms up to him.

First Patricia and Zed fic I've written in a while, but I decided to go for fluffy rather than smutty this time. This is an idea I've been toying with since I wrote that fic, and I knew that I wanted them to sleep together because she was having nightmares, but I could never figure out who would go to who. I knew that it wouldn't be long after they got together, and that they hadn't just jumped into cohabitation, but that was where I ran into my problem.

Ironically, it was while binge-searching stuff about Symmetra and Junkrat, then comparing them to Zed and Patricia. Then I thought that if they ever met, Satya and Patricia would start talking science and why can't other people respect their need for order why do they need to touch my things and move them? Jamie and Zed would just compare notes on being with a woman with autism, along with "why don't people think I know what I'm doing?" Then it occurred to me that Junkrat was probably more like Krieg. Then it just sorta clicked in my head that Krieg would be perfect for telling Zed what was up, giving him a reason to go to her. And then some Maya/Krieg got in there cause I didn't like only using him for a plot device and just going off into the night. Not sure why Axton showed up, but then I kinda liked the idea their group of Vault Hunters all knew Krieg was gonna do this, not just Maya, so his bit stayed.


End file.
